Chapter 378: Caught in One Net
"No, that movement feels so familiar..." Natsu thought hard.
"Idiot, isn't that exactly how you look when you eat fire?" Gray couldn't help but say.
"That's it! I knew it felt familiar!" Natsu exclaimed in sudden realization. Then it hit him: "This guy... don't tell me... he's a Dragon Slayer?!"
"Poison Dragon's Roar!"
Having quickly devoured the toxic mist in front of him, Cobra took a deep breath and violently exhaled toward the Allied Force. A dark red torrent of poison surged directly at them.
As Cobra launched his attack, the other members of the Oración Seis retreated far into the distance.
"Oh no!" Natsu cried out in alarm. He knew the devastating power of a Dragon Slayer's breath attack. It was too late for him to unleash his own breath attack to counter and cancel it out.
Fortunately, he wasn't the only one there.
"Iron Rock Wall!"
"Ice-Make: Ice Wall!"
Several thick walls made of solid stone pillars and a massive wall of ice erected themselves in front of the Allied Force, blocking Cobra's breath attack.
Cobra's roar didn't stop immediately; it sustained for several seconds before finally ceasing. After being blocked by the walls, the breath dispersed into the air.
"No, everyone hold your breath!" Erza shouted.
But it was too late. After Cobra's sustained breath attack, the air was saturated with toxins, and everyone had already inhaled them. The symptoms that appeared this time were even more severe than before. No one could stay standing; everyone collapsed to the ground.
"Huff... huff..."
The sound of heavy panting echoed one after another.
"Healing Angel!"
The Healing Angel Sorano had summoned earlier hadn't disappeared yet, and she hastily commanded it to cast its magic.
A soft light once again radiated from the Healing Angel, shining over the Allied Force. Under the illumination, everyone's symptoms improved slightly, but not by much.
"It's no use. He's a Poison Dragon Slayer; the toxicity is too strong. The effect of my Healing Angel isn't potent enough to completely purge his venom." Sorano tested it and realized she could only temporarily suppress the speed at which the poison acted, but she couldn't eradicate it. The enemy's venom was still actively wreaking havoc in their systems.
Ichiya also tried his Pain-Relieving Parfum again, but the results were even worse than Sorano's Healing Angel—it practically had no effect at all.
"The Poison Dragon's roar injects a virus into your bodies. From here on out, your bodies will gradually refuse to obey you, and your lives will slowly be stripped away. The very moment you inhaled this breath, your defeat was sealed," Cobra boasted proudly.
He saw the Allied Force's attempts to cure themselves, but he paid them no mind. He wasn't surprised that Cubellios's poison had been cured earlier; after all, Cubellios's venom wasn't particularly strong, and there were always a handful of people with magic capable of neutralizing it.
But the venom he was unleashing now was the venom of a Poison Dragon. It was leagues beyond Cubellios's poison; the two simply couldn't be compared. He had never seen anyone capable of neutralizing this kind of toxin.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
A massive torrent of flames roared toward Cobra. Wearing a wide smirk, Cobra quickly dodged to the side along with Cubellios, easily evading the attack.
"Damn it," Natsu, who had fired the roar, cursed between heavy pants, looking highly displeased.
"To think you still have this much mobility after taking my poison. For a Dragon Slayer of the old generation, you're not half bad," Cobra said with a laugh, looking at Natsu.
"Old generation?" Natsu asked, confused.
"I am a New Generation Dragon Slayer, one who gained the power to slay dragons by implanting a Dragon Lacrima into my own body," Cobra said with a smirk.
"He got Dragon Slayer magic through a Lacrima! This guy... isn't a real Dragon Slayer!" Happy, who had been hiding the entire time and hadn't joined the battle, couldn't help but shout upon hearing this.
"Real? Dragon Slayer Magic was supposedly a magic only dragons could learn, something fundamentally impossible for humans to master. If you ask me, you guys are the suspicious ones. Because the creature known as a dragon does not exist in this world!" Cobra declared to Natsu.
"Igneel exists!" Hearing Cobra's words, Natsu immediately and loudly retorted.
"They don't exist! Dragons went extinct a long time ago!" Cobra stated without hesitation.
"Bastard!" Hearing this, Natsu forced himself to stand up. Raising a flame-wreathed fist, he charged directly at Cobra.
"Poison Dragon's Twin Fangs!"
Cobra swung both his hands forward, directly batting away Natsu, whose reactions had been severely dulled by the poison.
"Waaahhh!"
Natsu was sent flying back into the crowd of the Allied Force, crashing squarely into Gray. The two of them tumbled across the ground several times before coming to a stop.
"You bastard... you hit me so hard!" Gray complained to Natsu.
Natsu struggled to climb back to his feet, but his movements were now noticeably sluggish.
"My body... feels so heavy..." Natsu realized his movements had become incredibly stiff.
"The venom has already spread. You can all just take your time waiting to die!" Cobra laughed.
He had noticed the Allied Force constantly trying to purge the poison from their bodies while he was talking to Natsu, but he didn't care in the slightest. It was like watching clowns put on a show.
The light radiating from Sorano's Healing Angel grew intensely bright, and everyone's physical condition improved significantly compared to before. However, as time ticked by, their condition began to deteriorate once more. It was glaringly obvious that the Healing Angel's restorative effects simply couldn't outpace the enemy's venom.
Ultear also took out the antidote Noah had developed previously and distributed it to everyone. It had some effect, but not much; it still couldn't eradicate the enemy's poison.
"Well done."
Seeing that Cobra had completely taken the upper hand, Brain walked over with the rest of the Oración Seis.
Looking at the Allied Force members sitting on the ground with pale, sickly faces, he couldn't help but declare: "Trash, be annihilated together!"
He raised his skull-adorned staff, and dark green magic power continuously gathered at the tip.
"This magic power... is... what is..." Yuka gasped.
"The atmosphere... is trembling..." Hibiki said in shock, feeling the disturbances around him.
"This is bad... my body won't move..." Ren struggled a few times but found himself completely paralyzed.
"Damn it... I won't let you get your way!" Jura struggled to his feet. Magic power surged around him, and the surrounding ground began to tremble violently under the influence of his magic.
"This magic power!" Brain looked at Jura in front of him, genuinely surprised by the sheer amount of magic power the man still possessed.
"Haa!"
Jura thrust his right hand forward in a sword gesture. Countless massive boulders rose from the surrounding ground and launched themselves directly at Brain.
Brain erected a magical barrier in front of himself just as Jura's controlled rocks flew into his face.
Bang!
The rocks slammed into Brain's barrier, forcing him backward continuously under the barrage. By the time all the rocks had shattered, Brain had been pushed a considerable distance away from his original spot, and the barrier in front of him had shattered under the relentless impacts.
"I see... Although I'm a bit surprised, it goes to show that the title of Wizard Saint isn't completely baseless, is it?" Brain chuckled, looking at the heavily panting Jura.
"Damn it, my body's condition is too poor..." Jura realized his attack had been far, far weaker than his usual standard.
"Hehe, if you hadn't been poisoned, you might have actually been able to cross blows with me. What a pity that you are infected. In this state, you pose no threat whatsoever. Just be a good boy and die quietly with the rest of them!"
Brain raised his skull cane once again, magic power continuously massing at its tip.
Jura struggled desperately to gather his magic power, but he found his condition had worsened even further. His body was incredibly stiff, and the magic power he could muster was even less than before.
"Damn it!" Jura glared resentfully at Brain gathering magic. He knew that if he couldn't block this upcoming attack, their entire force would be wiped out. So, no matter how difficult it was, he stubbornly pushed himself to gather magic power, doing everything he could to increase the potency of his next spell even by a fraction.
"Where the hell did Noah go?!" Sorano couldn't help but ask Erza beside her.
"I don't know. I tried initiating contact with him, but there was no response," Erza shook her head.
"I tried contacting my mother as well, but she didn't answer me either," Ultear informed them.
"Yeah, where did Noah and Ur go?" Lucy chimed in from the side.
"Did you just say Noah? Noah Flyer?"
Holding up his magic cane, Brain looked down at Ultear and the others, asking sharply.
"Heh, you know him?" Ultear looked at Brain with a mocking expression.
Seeing Ultear's demeanor, Brain knew she recognized him, but since he still had absolutely no impression of her, he paid it no mind. Instead, he gnashed his teeth and muttered to himself: "If it weren't for him, I could still be conducting my research at the Bureau of Magical Development. And because I knew he was relentlessly hunting me, I've been forced to constantly hide. It is entirely thanks to him that I've lived a life on the run.
"It seems you all know him. In that case, this is perfect. Annihilating you all should bring him agonizing pain! Hahaha!!!"
Brain laughed maniacally, and the magic power in his cane grew even stronger.
"What kind of deep grudge does Brain have with Noah?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.
"The Bureau of Magical Development he was a part of was destroyed by Noah. Everyone and all the data inside were wiped out by Noah in one swoop. Afterwards, Noah constantly hunted him down, forcing him to practically vanish from the dark world. It's likely because of all this that he harbors such a deep hatred for Noah.
"But he brought this upon himself! If it weren't for the things he did back then, why would Noah have done all that? We've also been constantly searching for him all these years. We finally found him this time, but unfortunately, we can't take him down. I have no idea where that guy Noah ran off to. To actually be absent at a time like this!" Sorano explained to Lucy, growing increasingly angry as she spoke.
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